Vin Murria, chief exec at ACS - a provider of healthcare and biz management software and services - said the buy played to its strategy of hoovering up bolt-on managed service providers.

She said Fabric's services unit, which includes hosting, DR and biz continuity, security, virtualisation and a unified comms package will "drive cross selling of managed services".

In the year to 31 December 2010, Fabric turned over £11.56m, up 40 per cent on its previous year, and reported profit before tax of £514,000, up from £203,000.

TechMarketView analyst Tola Sargeant said the deal with Fabric moves ACS "further away from its health and care roots but is a natural fit with [the Advanced Business Solutions] unit".

She added ACS is "in the mood to acquire further" and although buys will need to be core to the firm - health and care, biz solutions or managed services - "some more left field" purchases would not be a surprise. ®